All Nippon taking reservations for flights on largest jet

HONOLULU - Japan-based All Nippon Airways has begun taking reservations for flights between Tokyo and Honolulu on an Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner.

The airline expects to put its first 520-seat aircraft into service in late May. It started reserving seats earlier this month, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Thursday.

The carrier ordered three Airbus A380s in 2016. The big planes offer more seating options and greater comfort, even in coach, according to the airline.

All Nippon Airways plans to launch service on the A380 with flights three days per week between Honolulu and the Narita International Airport. It currently has two flights departing from Narita to Honolulu and one flight departing from Haneda Airport to Honolulu. Both airports serve the Tokyo area.

The airline anticipates moving to 10 flights per week when the second A380 enters service in July. The airline expects to ramp up its Japan-Hawaii capacity to about 1,300 customers per day by 2020 if all goes according to plan, said Jun Miyagawa, the airline's senior vice-president of sales.

With the big planes, the airline aims to carve out a bigger portion of the Japan-Honolulu market. Japan Airlines currently dominates with a 32 per cent share, while Hawaiian follows at 22 per cent, Miyagawa said.

"By 2020, our overall share would be maybe less than 30 per cent, but we'd like to overcome Japan Airlines at least in our metro market," Miyagawa said.